>> there should be no doubt that we will be relentless in tracking down the killers and bringing them to justice. >> good evening. >> i'm doreen gentzler. a mother, a father and their two children all found dead today in herndon. police made the discovery in the family's home just after noon today. they consider called after the parents failed to show up to work for several days. julie carey is live tonight with reaction from neighbors. julie? >> reporter: doreen, neighbors say this is the time of night the family who lives in that house would be out on the front porch waving hello as people came back from work. they found it odd that no one was outside yesterday as is customary now they know why. fairfax county police continue in their investigation to find out what happened. there were tears and embraces in the burnham woods subdivision as words spread that a well-known, well-liked family of four had been found dead in their homes.

the victims a father, a mother and two teenaged sons. >> it's a total surprise. my wife called me about an hour ago, said something terrible was going on in the neighborhood. >> reporter: fairfax county police made the terrible discovery around noon. they came to check on the family's welfare after a coworker of one of the parents called to say they had not shown up for work monday or today. once inside, police found the bodies. they are not characterizing this as a murder/suicide, but also say they don't believe there is a threat to the neighborhood. police also will not reveal how the family died. >> detectives haven't released anything about the cause of death or the condition of the bodies at this point. >> reporter: neighbors are wondering what went wrong. one who lives across the street reported hearing noises early sunday morning. >> sunday night, early monday morning, some of the neighbors reported hearing banging sounds. maybe gunshots. >> reporter: neighbors say the couple had lived on point rider lane for 28 years. they were original owners here. their oldest son was a sophomore

at westfield high school. the younger boy an eighth grader at rachel carson middle school. neighbors say the family was always outside on the porch or kicking a soccer ball in the yard. they say no one expected trouble. >> very, very friendly family. very personable. you know, we've been here for about six years, and they've always been great, you know. he drove -- he drove his pickup truck in the wintertime. sometimes when we had snowstorms and the v-dot hadn't cleaned up or done a very good job, he would help out and clear people's driveways a little bit for them. he was a good neighbor. he was a good guy, and a good family. >> reporter: this neighbor's son was a childhood friend of one of the victims. she faces a very tough conversation when she breaks the news tonight. >> he is really sensitive. he is an empathetic kid. and he is going to -- i don't know what he is going to do. i don't know what he is going to do. nothing like this has ever happened. >> reporter: and word of this

tragedy has already spread through this westfield high school community through twitter and facebook, with students leaving tributes to the sophomore who lived in this home. but because next of kin have not yet been identified, or notified, rather, police are not identifying the victims at this time. reporting live from herndon, i'm julie carey, news4. >> thank you, julie. more bombs fell in syria as the u.n. general assembly session got under way today. in his remarks at the u.n. today, president obama said the regime of syrian leader bashar assad must come to an end. he added in his own words if there is a cause that cries out for protest in the world today, it is a regime that tortures children and shoots rockets at apartment buildings. the president also had strong words for those in the muslim world who promote extremism. steve handelsman is at the united nation news in new york with more. steve? >> reporter: thanks, good evening from new york city. barack obama came to the u.n.

primarily, of course, as president, but also as a candidate in a tough reelection fight. president obama aimed his u.n. speech at american voters and at most muslims who he said do not hate. >> i would like to begin today by telling you about an american named chris stevens. >> reporter: the u.s. diplomat who loved libya, but who was murdered there. his u.s. consulate in benghazi burned. >> there are no words that excuse the killing of innocents. there is no video that justifies an attack on an embassy. >> reporter: there was no sympathy from the president. but he called for a deeper look into the root causes of anti-u.s. muslim rioting, and demanded that muslim leaders do more now. >> it is time to marginalize those who even when not directly resorting to violence use hatred of mercator west or israel as the central organizing prine iie of politics. >> reporter: iran's president, ahmadinejad yesterday called for the elimination of israel.

>> make no mistake, a nuclear armed iran is not a challenge that can be contained. >> reporter: israeli prime minister netanyahu publicly pushed obama to threaten force against iran. he didn't. >> america wants to resolve this issue through time diplomacy, and we believe there is still time and space to do so. >> reporter: mitt romney was in new york saying not enough good jobs in muslim nations leads to radicalization of islam. he promised aid. >> nothing we can do as nation will change lives and more effectively and permanently than sharing the insight that lies at the foundation of america's own economy. >> reporter: it's the u.s. economy that president obama once seen as his main focus. so he broke with previous practice, and this year met with only a few diplomats, and briefly, before heading back to washington. live at the u.n., i'm steve handelsman, news4. the former university of

virginia lacrosse player serving 23 years in jail for the murder of his ex-girlfriend is appealing the conviction. george hughley of chevy chase was convicted last month. love was from suburban baltimore and was also a lacrosse player. attorneys for hughley didn't reveal the basis of their appeal this time, but last month the judge rejected several defense claims when hughley was asking for a new trial. a transgendered woman was robbed and sexually assaulted in d.c. now police are looking for her attacker. he struck about 4:45 sunday morning while the victim was walking along 51st street northeast. police say the man hit the victim and sexually assaulted her at knifepoint and stole her purse. the d.c. police union is criticizing a move that would replace 80 uniformed officers with civilians in the department's crime scene branch. chief katherine lanier says the move is a reaction to changing

technology and the need for more officers on the street. tom sherwood here now with more on what the chief says the way of the future. >> reporter: jim, there is a lot of new technology and new ways of doing things. police chief kathy lanier is shifting 80 uniformed officers from crime scene analysis, replacing them with all civilian forensic technicians in a fast-changing high-tech world. >> the science has grown dramatically in the last 20 years. and it will be a gradual transition. but i think it's the way yes we have to do. it is the way of the future. and with the science advancing as rapidly as it is, i think it makes good sense. >> reporter: lanier praises the current officers who will get other uniform duties. the new $220 million headquarters of the city's chief medical examiner and state-of-the-art laboratories for crime scene analysis. it's due to open on monday and expected to improve police and prosecution work on thousands of cases. the chief medical officer responsible for all death investigations also will move from its rundown headquarters

near the old d.c. general hospital to the new facility that will be run by a civilian director. but the d.c. fraternal order of police union says the city is making a mistake replacing seasoned sworn officers who know crime scenes. >> unless you're going to replace the experts, and that's what those guys are, experts, with experts, then that's potentially a problem. >> reporter: the union contends the city has failed to hire enough officers and is stretching the force to fill vacancies, while many officers quit or retire. >> we're going to continue to lose folks as the conditions inside the agency deteriorate. and we just cannot maintain the ones that we've hired, and we can't recruit fast enough. >> reporter: only 20 of the 80 officers have been transferred so far. jim? >> thanks, tom. life just got easier for travelers who use greyhound buss to get to and from the district. today the bus service opened a new terminal. it joins amtrak and bike share.

the move emphasize's union station's critical role as a transportation hub. travelers say they like the convenience. >> it makes it real convenient. you don't have to worry about -- i'm going to new york city. you don't have to worry about driving up this and worrying about parking. >> it's more better here than at the old location. it's more convenient because you have union station, amtrak here also, and more connection points for anybody who is wanting to travel anywhere. >> the city pockets $47 million from the sale of the old greyhound bus terminal on first street northeast. another really gorgeous day out there today. but we're hearing it might be down hill from here. doug? >> down hill, but the slope is not like this, vance. more like this. more of a cloud cover issue than a rain issue. but we will see some rain too. 5 out there right now with winds out of the southwest at 12 miles per hour. still fairly mild. and a lot warmer than it has been the louisiana couple of days. right now also seeing mostly cloudy skies. temperatures around the region falling down to around 70 along

the i-81 corridor. we still have some showers that are trying to move towards the region that is a sign of things to come. we'll talk about our chances of rain over the next couple of days in just a minute. coming up on news4, hikers caught in a landslide. we're getting our first look at what it took to rescue women who had to dodge rolling blocks. a trip to the bank ended in a trip to the hospital for one customer. and the nfl chooses a side after a game-changing call is made by replacement refs during

comical. >> because how can two people call two different things? you're watching "news4 at 6." >> syrian officials are accusing rebel fighters of bombing a school today. the rebels say the government forces used the school as a cover to launch mortar attacks on civilians. >> reporter: syrian state television is reporting that an explosion has taken place at a school in the capital of damascus that has left at least seven people wounded.

now there are reports suggesting that rebels targeted the school because it was being used by pro government militias to attack nearby neighborhoods. it is the latest indication of the violence that is spiraling out of control there. meanwhile, in new york at the united nations, the man tasked with putting an end to the conflict by both the united nation answered the arab league briefed the u.n. security council members on his recent trip to the region. he told u.n. security council members that the conflict in syria was going from bad to worse and said that it is now threatening regional stability and international peace. despite that grim assessment, he said there was a possibility for hope to end the conflict, but really did not spell out how exactly he was going to try and bring that about. the ongoing conflict in syria is expected to dominate the agenda throughout the course of the week at the united nations. on wednesday, egypt's president mohamud morsi, who has already called for president bashar al assad to step down from power is

expected to address the general assembly, where he is also expected to reiterate those calls once again. nbc news, cairo. a radical muslim cleric has lost an eight-year battle against deportation to the u.s. abu hamza al masri is imprisoned in england on a variety of terror-related crimes. for nearly ten years, he has been fighting efforts to extradite him to the states. he is charged here with attempting to establish a terrorist training camp in oregon and also with masterminding plots to kidnap westerners in yemen. al masri faces life in prison if he is convict to have had charges here. he is expected back within the u.s. within weeks now. there is new video, and now conflicting information about the brawl at a factory in china that makes apple iphones. this is amateur video reportedly taken right after the fight. a worker at the company called fox com says the fight involved 2,000 workers, and it was

started because of a conflict about working conditions there. the company says it was just a private dispute. the worker who is speaking out wants to remain anonymous, but he says security guards routinely beat up the employees there. there is new video tonight of a daring rescue after a landslide in northern italy. four australian tourists were injured when a landslide buried a roadway in the famous cinceu terre region. the road has been closed while they're conducting a safety inspection. beautiful country, but quite a mess. we're losing daylight? >> very fast at about the amount of 2:30 a day of daylight. it doesn't get any faster than that around our region. not only are we losing daylight, but also starting to lose that really good feeling, that great fall weather we've seen over the past couple of days and really the past two weeks. mother nature bringing the clouds back in. we're going to see a lot of clouds. this is our camera the gaylord

national and down there in national harbor wrote. can you see the woodrow wilson bridge. traffic flowing pretty good also across the area. you can see old town alexandria. as far as temperatures, we did see a high temperature down around 6 degrees a little earlier this afternoon. low this morning 53. a very cool start. many of you started off in the low 50s, or rather low 30s. let me say that again. low 40s this morning. many of you started the morning in the low 40s. it was quite chilly this morning. and yeah, 12 hours of daylight today. and 12 hours of darkness tonight. the sunset tonight 7:00. the sunrise tomorrow morning, 7:00. each day we continue to lose sunlight. it's going to be dark a lot longer. 75 degrees the current temperature. winds out of the southwest at 12 miles per hour. and we are looking at those mostly cloudy skies across our region. 68 in winchester. 67 in petersburg, and 65 down

towards stanton. to the east looking at 72 in indianapolis. many areas in the low 60s. we're not going to be nearly as cold this evening. we are watching a few showers back to the west. these are right through the mountains just west of winchester coming through hampshire and hardy counties and north and west. some of these showers may make their way across the blue ridge. but then they're dying out as they make their way our way. we're not going to see any shower activity here. what we are going to see is the clouds on the increase. this was a lot of rain earlier. it falls apart as it makes its way our way. we'll continue to do so as it's entering a fairly dry air mass. watch that trail from st. louis all the way back towards kansas city and wichita, all the way back towards denver. that's the moisture train that is moving our way. and that's what we're going to be seeing heading our way over the next couple days. also the cloud cover. look at all the clouds streaming on in. say goodbye to all the sunshine we've seen over the last few days, saying goodbye to the nice

blue skies, saying hello to a little more in the way of high pressure. high pressure slides on down to the south and east tomorrow. here is the thing. we're going to see a slight chance of showers. only 30% chance. mostly to the north and west. well will see more clouds. but it's also going to be fairly warm. and if we see some sunshine, not a bad afternoon on wednesday. high temperatures in the low 80s for many of us. it's thursday and friday that we see a little bit better chance of rain, a better chance of cloud cover, and temperatures will start to cool into the low 70s. some areas, depending on where this front goes could be in the upper 60s with shower activity on friday that doesn't make for a very nice day. we're not talking about a washout here. so don't expect a ton of rain over the next few days. just expect to keep that umbrella handy. a little bit on the cool side. 65 to 69 degrees by around 8:00, 9:00 tonight. tomorrow morning waking up to temperatures a lot warmer. 53 to 59. we'll call it mostly cloudy with a few showers. best chance of showers to the north and west of washington. that's going to be the theme through the day tomorrow too,

with more clouds tomorrow. but more sun down to the south. we will see more shower activity on thursday. a better chance on friday. another chance on saturday. and then we'll start to dry out just a little bit. temperatures in the 70s throughout right now the weekend, looking half and half with some showers on saturday. sunday looking pretty good. >> all right. and today was nice. >> today was great. >> thank you, doug. coming up, madonna makes a controversial statement about the president just a few blocks from the white house. we're getting a new look at the way it will be easier an ever to skip long security lines at the airport. coming up in sports, another look at that replacement ref debacle on monday night football. football. the hits keep on com this message. experiences classrooms. sizes don't matter... by 20%. teaching to some test... he personally cannot relate to. education, children.

the road show to philly, as news4 at 6:00 continue.

you're watching "news4 at 6." >> something that was really troubling that occurred last night. did you guys watch that packer game last night? i mean give me a break. it is time to get the real refs. >> republican vice presidential nominee paul ryan just one of many football fans still scratching their heads tonight. they are upset about the call made in the monday night football game between the green bay packers and the seahawks. even president obama tweeted out a message today saying nfl fans hope the refs lockout will be settled soon. the nfl meanwhile trying to calm some of the outrage that followed that play. >> it issued a statement saying the referees' ruling was the correct one. but as chris gordon reports now, fan frustration is mounting.

>> and seattle has beaten green bay on the final play of the game on a 24-yard touchdown pass. unbelievable! >> reporter: it's all over tv, twitter, and the radio. sports fans are fed up with the replacement refs. >> think about this. at the end of the season, even towards the play-offs when team are figuring who is in and who is out and we're doing the math, that's when it's really going to upset a out lot of players and fans. >> reporter: both played for the redskins and other teams as well. >> it reminds me of the 70s when i got in the league, you could bump. guys were beating up receivers all the way down the field. that's what is going on now. the tragedy are the fists that are being thrown, punches are being thrown. and very little is happening about it. and i think the national football league will do absolutely nothing to rectify this. >> i watch football and played football a long time. and you look at there is no control. and if you don't have control, you're not going to be able to go out there and have a gain

that is going to be played fairly. >> reporter: football fans were still talking about the monday night controversial call. most disagree that seattle completed the hail mary pass and the replay shows that the two refs in the end zone disagreed on their call. >> neither one, didn't need to be a referee. neither one know what they're talking about. how can do people call two different things? >> it's comical, watching these referees. i mean, it's like asking high school referees at an nfl game. >> reporter: redskins fans complained about the replacement refs as recently as this past sunday in the season home opener here at fedex field. >> we had some ref mistakes. but for the most part i thought we played hard. >> i think the replacement refs need to go. >> reporter: some fans say the game isn't the same anymore. ed a fedex field, chris gordon, news4. coming up in sports, dan

hellie has more on this controversy and reaction from the players. four members of the same family found dead in their home in herndon, virginia. two adults, parents, and two teenagers found on point rider lane today. police checked on the home after the family wasn't seen for several days. police are not saying how the family died, but they will say there is no threat to the surrounding neighborhood. president obama spoke to the united nations general assembly today. he denounced those who encourage anti-american rioting and extremism in the muslim world, and he vowed the killers of ambassador chris stevens will be brought to justice. he also said he believe there's is time for diplomacy to resolve the issue of a nuclear-armed iran. israel had urged the president to threaten to use force. beginning on friday, police in the district will again be issuing alcohol breath tests. the program was suspended two years ago because the equipment was not working properly. today city officials say they have a new state-of-the-art

instrument to screen for drunk drivers. right now a search is under way for a gunman who shot and robbed a bank customer in takoma park. the same bank was the scene of a bank robbery and hostage situation just last year. now those who bank in that area are feeling nervous. jackie benson is outside the capital one bank on new hampshire avenue with the latest on the investigation. jackie? >> reporter: doreen, the victim, 33, was shot in the hand. now the shooting is causing great concern in the latino community. they believe that the victim, a painting contractor, was targeted by the suspect who assumed he was carrying large sums of money. >> he was cut in the corner by his van, with the door open to his van, talking on the phone. >> you said he had his arm tuckedup him? >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: jason miller who works at a nearby restaurant describes the scene at the hampshire langley shopping center at university boulevard in takoma park around 7:00 last night. he says he saw a man obviously

in distress standing next to a van with ladders on top. >> the victim was across the parking lot over here, calling the police, talking to the police on the phone. in english you could hear him saying i'm right over here. he was in distress. the police sirens are going off. there was several police cars going around here. a few minutes later, cordoned off the area. >> investigators say the shooting happened as the victim walked from the front door of the capital one bank to his van. >> at that time the suspect made a demand for his property. he obtained cash from the victim, and then fired one shot, striking the victim in the hand. >> reporter: a day later, detectives returned to a nearby apartment complex on 15th avenue to question residents and look for information. in the minutes after the shooting, a police k-9 had tracked the suspect to the complex but lost the trail there. >> we did a k-9 research. we recovered some items left behind by the suspect and we're